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33-731: When Anastasio Somoza García took power in 1936, the party aligned itself with the United States and other caudillos in Latin America , like Rafael Trujillo , Oswaldo López Arellano , and Fulgencio Batista . From 1936 to 1979, the office of President of Nicaragua was held by members of the Nationalist Liberal Party. When the first phase of the Nicaraguan Revolution was won by the FSLN ,

66-531: A daughter, Lillian Somoza de Sevilla Sacasa . In 1926, Somoza joined the Liberal rebellion in support of the presidential claims of Juan Bautista Sacasa , his wife's uncle. Somoza failed to distinguish himself in battle, leading an unsuccessful attack on the garrison at San Marcos. However, as a result of being educated in the United States, he spoke excellent English and acted as an interpreter during

99-587: A deal with the Conservatives; thus, he faced no opposition. This left him free to amass a huge personal fortune. On 21 September 1956, he was shot by poet Rigoberto López Pérez . Mortally wounded, he was flown to the Panama Canal Zone where he died a week later. His eldest son Luis Somoza Debayle , who was Speaker of the House at the time of Somoza Garcia's death, took over as acting president and

132-550: A former Nicaraguan dictator, who is entombed in Miami.) Although Somoza was recognized as a ruthless dictator, the United States continued to support his regime as a non-communist stronghold in Nicaragua. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) supposedly remarked in 1939 that "Somoza may be a son of a bitch , but he's our son of a bitch." According to historian David Schmitz, however, researchers and archivists who have searched

165-588: A legal, centrist opposition party and briefly sided with the Sandinistas to overthrow Somoza Debayle and cement the victory of the Nicaraguan Revolution . In 1968, another group of members, led by Ramiro Sacasa Guerrero (former minister for labor), split from the Nationalist Liberal Party, disagreeing with Anastasio Somoza Debayle 's ambition to re-run. They formed the Constitutionalist Liberal Movement, which later evolved into

198-431: A member of one of Nicaragua's wealthiest families, daughter of Dr. Luis Henri Debayle Pallais and wife Casimira Sacasa Sacasa, daughter of Roberto Sacasa Sarria , 44th and 46th President of Nicaragua, and wife and cousin Ángela Sacasa Cuadra. After returning to Nicaragua, he was unsuccessful as a businessman. He married Salvadora Debayle in 1919. They had two sons, Luis Somoza Debayle and Anastasio Somoza Debayle , and

231-500: A myth created by Somoza himself. Rigoberto L%C3%B3pez P%C3%A9rez Rigoberto López Pérez (May 13, 1929 – September 21, 1956) was a Nicaraguan poet, artist and composer. He assassinated Anastasio Somoza García , the longtime dictator of Nicaragua . On September 21, 1981, 25 years after his death, the Sandinista government of Nicaragua declared Rigoberto López Pérez a National Hero by means of Decree no. 825. López

264-515: A national airline ( LANICA , short for Líneas Aéreas de Nicaragua) and a new container port on the Pacific near Managua, which he named Puerto Somoza. (After the Sandinistas came to power they renamed it Puerto Sandino ). He also acquired properties in the United States and Canada. In 1955, the constitution was amended to allow Somoza to run for another term. Shortly after being nominated, he

297-420: A radio station called Radio Colonial. Lopéz's musical influences included Beethoven ; Rubén Darío , a Nicaraguan poet, often referred to as the "Father of Modernism", was a major literary influence to him. Lopéz would often collaborate in publications such as "El Cronista" and " El Centroamericano" . López's girlfriend, Amparo Zelaya Castro, was the sister of Armando Zelaya, a journalist who drove López to

330-639: A safe-conduct agreement. Sandino's assassination was followed by the murder of former Sandino supporters by the National Guard. In 1936, Somoza staged a coup with the National Guard, forcing Sacasa to resign in June. Carlos Alberto Brenes ruled for the remainder of the year and in December, Somoza was elected president reportedly with 64,000 of the 80,663 votes cast He took office on New Year's Day 1937. Somoza, popularly known as "Tacho", amended

363-657: A source of stability. His daughter Lillian Somoza Debayle, born in León, Nicaragua, on 3 May 1921, married Guillermo Sevilla Sacasa , Nicaraguan Ambassador to the United States during his brother-in-law's rule. He also had a son named José R. Somoza, born to an unknown mother. Somoza is entombed with his oldest son at Cementerio Occidental in the National Guard Mausoleum in Managua, Nicaragua. (He should not be confused with his son, Anastasio Somoza Debayle, also

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396-542: A wealthy coffee planter, Somoza was educated in the United States. After his return to Nicaragua, he helped oust President Adolfo Díaz . He became the foreign secretary and took the title of "General". With the help of the US Marine Corps , which occupied Nicaragua at the time, Somoza became the head of the National Guard . This gave him the power base to remove his wife's uncle, Juan Bautista Sacasa , from

429-536: The Casa del Obrero where he later shot Somoza. On September 21, 1956, López was able to infiltrate a party in the Club Social de Obreros de León that was attended by President Somoza and shot him in the chest. López was instantly killed in a hail of bullets and Somoza died a few days later in the Panama Canal Zone hospital. Somoza's son, Luis Somoza Debayle , replaced his father as president. In April 1979, at

462-506: The Constitutionalist Liberal Party . The party was banned after the FSLN takeover in 1979. This political party- and liberalism-related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article about a Nicaragua political party is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Anastasio Somoza Garc%C3%ADa Anastasio Somoza García (1 February 1896 – 29 September 1956)

495-579: The Dominican Republic . It should be further noted that this statement has been attributed to a variety of United States presidential administrations in regard to foreign dictators. Thus the statement remains apocryphal at this point, though Roosevelt and later presidents certainly supported the Somoza family and their rule over Nicaragua. Andrew Crawley claims that the Roosevelt statement is

528-647: The United States Marines . After waging a bitter, six-year struggle with the forces of General Augusto César Sandino , in January 1933, the Marines evacuated the country following the election of Juan Bautista Sacasa as president. At the urging of the U.S. Ambassador Matthew E. Hanna, Somoza García was appointed as director of the National Guard. During peace talks, Somoza ordered the assassination of General Sandino on 21 February 1934 in violation of

561-617: The Constitution to centralize all power in his hands. Family members and key supporters monopolized key positions in the government and military. During World War II , the government confiscated the properties of Nicaragua's small, but economically influential German community and sold them to Somoza and his family at vastly lowered prices. By 1944, Somoza was the largest landowner in Nicaragua, owning fifty-one cattle ranches and forty-six coffee plantations, as well as several sugar mills and rum distilleries. Somoza named himself director of

594-639: The National Guard to secure his election. Somoza intended for Argüello to be a mere puppet and to keep real power in his own hands until he could run again in 1952. However, upon being sworn in as president in May 1947, Argüello displayed considerable independence, attempting to reduce the power of the National Guard and the control of Somoza and his associates over the economy. Less than a month later, Somoza orchestrated another coup, naming one of his wife's uncles, Benjamín Lacayo , as president. This definitively ended any hopes for further democratization in Nicaragua under

627-576: The PLN was dissolved by the new government. Many Somoza loyalists later supported or joined Contras rebel groups. Whilst initially it still featured a liberal agenda (the Liberals having been one of the two main parties of Nicaragua since the 19th century along with the Conservatives ), the Nationalist Liberal Party later developed into little more than a political vehicle for the kleptocracy of

660-667: The Pacific Railroad, linking Managua to the nation's principal port, Corinto , which moved his merchandise and crops for free and maintained his vehicles and agricultural equipment. He also made substantial profits by granting concessions to foreign (primarily U.S.) companies to exploit gold, rubber, and timber, for which he received 'executive levies' and 'presidential commissions.' He passed laws restricting imports and organized contraband operations, which sold merchandise through his own stores. He also extracted bribes from illegal gambling, prostitution, and alcohol distilling. By

693-719: The Sandinistas and accelerated the fall of the Somoza regime. After the Sandinista victory in July, the Estadio Nacional Anastasio Somoza in Managua, used as a venue for baseball and football as well as concerts and other events, was named after Lopéz. However, on November 20, 1998, the 50th anniversary of the founding of the stadium, then-President Arnoldo Alemán issued a decree changing the name of Nicaragua's national stadium to Estadio Nacional Dennis Martínez . A new baseball stadium named after Lopez

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726-406: The Somoza clan. The party suffered several splits: in 1944, opposing Anastasio Somoza García 's intentions to re-run for the presidency, dissident party members such as Manuel Cordero Reyes, Roberto González Dubón, Carlos Morales, Gerónimo Ramírez Brown (minister of public education from 1939 to 1944) and Carlos Pasos formed the new Independent Liberal Party , that functioned for decades to come as

759-439: The Somoza regime. When the administration of U.S. President Harry Truman refused to recognize the new government, a Constituent Assembly was convened, which appointed Somoza's uncle, Víctor Manuel Román y Reyes , as president. In another heavily rigged election, Somoza García again became president in 1950. In the 1950s, he reorganized and streamlined his business empire, founding a merchant marine company, several textile mills,

792-424: The U.S.-brokered negotiations between the warring parties. In the government of President José María Moncada , to whom he was distantly related, he served as governor of the department of León , Nicaraguan Consul to Costa Rica , and Foreign Minister. Despite his limited military experience, Somoza was able to rise through the ranks of the National Guard ( Guardia Nacional ), the constabulary force organized by

825-484: The archives of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library have found no evidence that Roosevelt ever made this statement. The statement first appeared in the 15 November 1948 issue of Time magazine and was later mentioned in a 17 March 1960 broadcast of CBS Reports called "Trujillo: Portrait of a Dictator". In this broadcast, however, it was asserted that FDR made the statement in reference to Rafael Trujillo of

858-681: The end of the decade, he had acquired a fortune estimated to be US$ 400 million. Though Nicaragua received Lend-Lease aid in World War II, the unwillingness of Nicaragua to actually fight meant it was given obsolete equipment (most of it being either purchased from Russia , Spain and Portugal or captured German equipment) and no Western training. In 1944, under pressure from the U.S., Somoza agreed to liberalize his rule. Unions were legalized, and he agreed not to run for re-election in 1947. The Nationalist Liberal Party nominated an elderly doctor named Leonardo Argüello , with Somoza using

891-556: The peak of the Sandinistas' Revolutionary War, one of the five FSLN's Regional Commands in control of 24 cities altogether, was named after him. Unluckily, the FSLN's "Rigoberto Lopez Perez" Western Command was captured in full in a safe house in the suburbs of Leon and killed in captivity by dictator Somoza's forces. The cold-blooded massacre of this Command, made up of Oscar Perez Cassar, Roger Deshon, Araceli Perez Darias, Idania Fernandez , Carlos Manuel Jarquin and Edgard Lang Sacasa, enraged

924-410: The presidency, and make himself president in 1937. In 1947, an ally nominally succeeded him, but he retained power. A month after his successor had been inaugurated, Somoza used the military to carry out a coup. The president was declared 'incapacitated' by Congress and Somoza served in his stead. Returning to power in his own name in 1950, he maintained an iron grip on his own Liberal Party while making

957-525: Was born and raised in León , Nicaragua ; son of Soledad López and Francisco Pérez. López published his first poem, "Confesión de un Soldado" (Confession of a Soldier), at the age of 17 in 1946. In 1948 he formed part of a six-member musical group called "Buenos Aires". That same year he learned to play the violin , which he played in the group. López composed music, mostly romantic, including "Claridad" and "Si el vino me hace llorar" which Buenos Aires released on

990-689: Was born in San Marcos , Carazo Department in Nicaragua, the son of Anastasio Somoza Reyes, a wealthy criollo coffee planter, and Julia García, and a grandson of Anastasio Somoza Martínez and Isabel Reyes. As a teenager, he was sent to live with relatives in Philadelphia , where he attended the Peirce School of Business Administration (now Peirce College ). While living in Philadelphia, he met his future wife, Salvadora Debayle Sacasa,

1023-477: Was elected in his own right in 1957. He served as president until 1963, and as the power behind puppet presidents until his death in 1967. His son, Anastasio Somoza Debayle was elected to serve until 1972, then served as the real power behind a nominally bipartisan junta until being reelected in 1974. Somoza Debayle was forced to resign in 1979 and was assassinated in exile in Paraguay the following year. Somoza

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1056-456: Was shot on 21 September 1956 by the poet Rigoberto López Pérez in the city of León , and died several days later in a Panama Canal Zone hospital. Somoza's sons, Luis and Anastasio Somoza Debayle , ruled the country directly or through figurehead politicians for the next 23 years. Despite widespread corruption and repression of dissent, they were able to receive support from the United States, which viewed them as anti-communist stalwarts and

1089-464: Was the leader of Nicaragua from 1936 until his assassination in 1956. He was officially the 21st President of Nicaragua from 1 January 1937 to 1 May 1947 and from 21 May 1950 until his assassination on 29 September 1956, ruling for the rest of the time as an unelected military dictator. He was the patriarch of the Somoza family , which ruled Nicaragua as a family dictatorship for 42 years. The son of

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